Colony
by SpunSilk
Summary: Kolchak: The Night Stalker story. "Extraordinary claims call for extraordinary evidence, Darlin'. You're asking me to chase on out of here, go isolate myself and – if what you claim is true – just weaken and die out there alone somewhere? And why! Because you claim it's true? Uh-uh. Doesn't cut mustard. Prove it."
1. Chapter 1: Exile

**Colony**

**by SpunSilk**

**Part one : Exile**

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_No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow._

_––Euripides_

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**Carl is not mine, but I'm borrowing him for this story. You will enjoy this story more if you first read _Lodestone_. Do take the time.**

I worked the combination on the old lock. It opened with a stiff _thunk_, and I pushed the door open and peered inside. _Well. I'll be a monkey's uncle..._ I pushed my hat back on my head.

The cabin 'with all the comforts of a back-country home' I had arranged to rent online was a disappointment to say the least. I had already noticed the lack of electrical wires leading into it as I had approached in the Mustang. No juice. A kerosene lamp stood on the single table. The fireplace appeared to be the only source of heat, although the wood supply seemed generous. I noted a sturdy bed, a braided wool rug, a kitchen sink with a pump-handle spout (!) emptying into it, and a row of pegs in the log wall to serve as a closet. Maybe I expected more comforts than the average back-country home normally offered. Or maybe, I had just been bamboozled.

I looked around expectantly for a john, but found not a trace. Fearing the worst, I walked out and around the back of the cabin... and there it stood: a quaint little outhouse, complete with the obligatory half-moon cut out of the door. My jaw hung open. _Well,_ _I'll be a monkey's uncle,_ I repeated in my head.

This I had learned so far; the _next_ time I needed to go into exile, don't trust the damned Internet.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Mr. Kolchak, we need to talk."

I had rolled over sleepily in my bed back home in the city. Shock had turned quickly to delight as I found a lovely gal sitting on my bed. She was young and shapely, short blond hair in a pixie style, immaculately dressed in a black almost skin-tight suit. Not the sort I usually dream about, but variety is the spice, they say. "Hallo beautiful." I smiled.

"I'm sorry to have to just come talk to you like this but extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures." 'Extraordinary' was the only word I heard, and she was. Huge black eyes that sparked with intelligence, great body – the whole package. I gazed at her like a love-sick puppy. She continued, "I know you must be shocked, but you must be made aware of your condition."

"I'm not shocked, Honey. Surprised; delighted. Who are you? And does it matter?"

She eyed me skeptically. "I know your exposure to the existence of the Ether has been limited, but still you know considerably more than most humans on the planet... So you will be able to follow the logic, if not the detail, of what I'm about to explain."

"Not to worry, Darlin', don't stress your pretty self. This is just a dream anyway. Lovely gals every now an' again come into my dreams..." I drawled.

A quick smirk flashed on her lips. "I _see_. I assume when these 'lovely gals' do appear in your dreams the dream quickly takes a far different direction than this conversation has thus far, hmm?"

I rolled the truth of her question around in my noggin.

"Mr. Kolchak, please listen carefully. For the good of the human and non-human populace in this city, I need to have you to **_isolate_** yourself."

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Isolation. This place was that in spades.

I heaved the next box of provisions from the trunk of my car and returned back into the cabin. How long can a man live on canned food? How long would he be willing to bother? I left it on the rough counter next to the others by the pump handle. The last load consisted of a small satchel, a fresh ream of paper, and my trusty old manual in its travel-case. Ha! I was feeling smug as I carried my old friend into the electricity-free cabin. Take _that_, Mr. _'Computers-are-superior-Why-do-you-insist-on-holdi ng-onto-that-dinosaur'_ Vincenzo. The plan was for me to take the time out here to slap out a pulp fiction crime novel. I can't just up and take an unpaid vacation from life, quarantine or no. A man's got to earn a dollar.

I set the typewriter out on the bare-wood table, paper next to it, glanced around and sighed.

_Home sweet home_, I thought bitterly.

The _quiet_ of the place was already too loud on my ears...

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**


	2. Chapter 2 : Diagnosis

**Colony**

**by SpunSilk**

**Part two : Diagnosis**

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_A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illness._

_–– Hippocrates_

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**You will enjoy this story more if you first read _Lodestone_. Do take the time.**

"A problem with my _aura_? You've got to be kidding. What now?"

"I know it's unusual. And a human affected this way is actually unprecedented. But you are... rather unique as humans go, shall we say. In addition to the normal aura, your magnetism bends–"

"I know what it does," I scowled, "I've seen it. But it's not _real_. It's just lights! ...And tastes and stuff," I added weakly. My mind was now fully awake.

"You're incorrect about the nature of the human aura. It is certainly more than 'just lights', I don't expect you to fully understand. I don't understand this fully myself – Colony usually affects... others; non-human beings.. The problem _is_ a serious one–

"How? _Why?_" I asked with more irritation than was called for.

"Mr. Kolchak, There's no need to be short, I'm going to try to describe something to you that you have never heard of , and do it in terms that are familiar to you. The metaphors available to me, between the things you know, and therefore understand, and the _Ether_, are few. My explanations will therefore be somewhat limited.

"The aura is complex. Take for example your hand; your eye sees the structure and function of the hand, it appears simple, but there are many many layers of bones, muscles, tendons, and nerves that are hidden to the eye yet important to give the hand its end function. Think of the aura this way. Now in your unique case, in addition to the normal aura, we find a bubble of magnetism. This may be what attracted the problem, I've really never seen this condition in a human aura before–"

"Don't call it a bubble," I frowned. "That makes it sound... cute."

"It _is_ quite lovely." Her large eyes scanned the empty air around me.

"It's nearly cost me my _life_ many times over."

She nodded. "Yes, that I can understand. You must attract quite a variety of extra attention in the Ether."

"Unwanted attention. And how do you know about this problem? About me?"

"My charge is the health of the populous, similar to a caretaker."

"So... are you like a _doctor_? A doctor in the Ether?"

She considered carefully. "Not exactly. More like a... large animal vet."

That comment took me down a notch or two. I scowled. "What kind of problem have I got with my aura?"

"A less-than-optimal metaphor for your condition would be, your aura has a... hmm... _viral infection_."

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

I walked. I walked a lot that first afternoon. I walked to kill time and to familiarize myself with my new neighborhood. Mostly to kill time. I walked country roads that in some places were really no more than paired-footpaths. The weeds grew enthusiastically in the middle of the road. I met not a soul – that was the goal of this little expedition after all – only birds. And they yakked up a ruckus as I passed by. A more godforsaken piece of mountainside I'd not yet seen in all my days. It was all too enthusiastically green. I walked on in a foul mood. All this nature was just unnatural. A man should feel concrete under his feet, the way God intended!

I kick a stone out of my way with my hands deep in my pockets, and frowned out at the world from under my hat brim. The injustice of it all twisted my gut. I didn't _feel_ sick...

That evening, through trial and error – I won't go into how many – I learned to build a fire that would stay lit. I spent a lot of that first night just staring into it, my mind hollow, watching as the yellow tongues of flame ate away at the old wood, and the dark outside deepened slowly to black...


	3. Chapter 3 : Contagion

**Colony**

**by SpunSilk**

**Part three : Contagion **

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_If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will start to gaze back into you._

_–– Friedrich Nietzsche_

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**You will enjoy this story more if you first read _Lodestone_. Do take the time.**

"A virus?! In an _aura_?"

She said defensively, "I didn't say it _was_ a virus, I said that was less-than-optimal as a metaphor."

"Look, Doc, My _aura_ has done me no favors since... oh, since long about Skorzeny." I grumbled. "If it wants to, my aura can _have_ its virus, crumble and fade – and leave me in _**peace**_ as far as I'm concerned."

She shook her head. "You're wrong," she answered gently. "There's so much about the aura that you humans don't understand. It's as much a part of you as your arm, your heart, or your identity. You need it. You aren't _you_ without it."

"Where did this infection come from? How'd I get it?"

"That's difficult to say. Of course, it can be transferred – in a sense – from one being to another. Normally this is the case, but you would have had no reason to have been near enough to... well..." her mind seemed to wander. She shook her head slightly, as if to clear it. "On rare occasions Colony resides in the Ether itself, searching for a host. But as I have said, human aura is not their _normal_ energy source. I'm very interested to see how their life-cycle plays out in a human."

" 'Searching for a host'? You make them sound intentioned!"

"Oh, they are. Colony is a quasi-intelligent disease, that travels in groups –colonies– from one host to another, killing as it goes."

"An intelligent _disease?! Excuse me?"_

She smiled patiently._ "_An insightful human playwright once said, _There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies."_

"Well, a _disease_ my immune system should fight off."

"It can't," she said dismissively.

"If it's a virus, it bloody well can _try_!"

"Please don't try to apply biology to your condition. This is separate. Let me try to explain. The life-cycle is a place to start. Colony first enters an aura in a particulate form; the latent phase. Here, in the rich natural energy of the aura, it gestates until it is ready to 'bloom'. (This can be within hours in an Ether entity but at what rate it matures in a human can only be speculation.) At this point, the organism breaks out of their dormant state and becomes active, devastatingly active. They can number in the thousands. They feed on the very energy of the aura, digesting it for their own use, sapping the victim of life-energy and ultimately of life itself. Then they multiply. It starts slowly at first, but more quickly as they grow in strength. This all-too-quickly can bring a being to its figurative knees, again normally within days. Then they will swarm. Perhaps another biological metaphor would be _bees_."

"So which is it here; a virus or bees?!"

She ignored my question. "Once the aura is exhausted and the patient is dead, they swarm, breaking into multiple _new_ colonies with their ill-acquired energy, and build 'particulates' to transverse the Ether again, each group seeking out a new host close-by to begin the lifecycle anew. It spreads this way, like wildfire in a high-density population." She spoke bitterly. "Or alternatively, if a suitable host is unlucky enough to be standing too close as the victim dies, Colony can choose to transfer in full bloom, skipping the particulate phase altogether. It's _not_ pretty." Her eyes were dark and haunted as she told this tale of death. She shook her head and pulled herself back into the moment.

"We have no idea how it will behave in a human aura. I have to speculate it will progress slower than normal, the aura not being it's... _flavor_ _of choice_ if you will. The human aura is less immediately important to the human, since he cannot see or sense it – I'm told most humans don't even know their aura exists! The human subject, then, will probably not notice the loss of aural energy until later. My kind are almost instantly impacted." She added with a furrowed brow, "There is no cure for Colony."

"It's a death-sentence?"

"For normal Ether entities, yes."

"Will it kill other humans I get too close to? Will it kill... me?"

"My guess is yes and yes. My concern is that once it establishes a new... _taste_ in auras here with you, it may evolve to feed on humans as well, expanding its victim-options. I'm hoping by isolating this one case, I can avoid that developing."

I sat numb. "So I have a question; if, as you say, I'm infected, why not just kill me yourself? Be done with it."

She eyed me thoughtfully. "An interesting suggestion. But that would not help my problem. If their host were to die in the first phase of their life cycle, they would choose to bloom immediately, for survival sake. I wouldn't want to be _anywhere_ close by. No. It must be as I've described it to you; you must self-isolate. If you are far enough away from any vulnerable entity when they swarm, the time-lapse itself will work in our favor; They may starve out before finding a new host."

She paused and said, "I have another biological metaphor that will show you the seriousness of the situation. Think of it this way," She fixed me hard with a piercing stare, "You carry **_plague_**."

My blood ran cold. That word carries less emotional impact for society at large today than it did in the 1300s, but my business is words, and I knew what was meant by it. I set my jaw. "You choose strong words, Lady."

"I must make you understand."

"I want proof," I stated cooly.

She shook her head. "Most of the symptoms are not things you have senses to experience."

"Well, I don't want to shock you, Mrs. Dr. 'Vet', but I'm a quasi-intelligent being, _myself_. I get to ask for proof."

"We don't have time for this–"

"Extraordinary claims call for extraordinary evidence, Darlin'. You're asking me to chase on out of here, go isolate myself and – if what you claim is true – just weaken and _die_ out there alone somewhere? And why! Because **_you_** claim it's true. Uh-uh. Doesn't cut mustard. Prove it."

"How do you propose I do that?!"

"Show it to me, show me these things in my aura through your eyes. The Kobalt showed me my aura, it's easy."

"I can't _**see**_ the infection, no one can! Colony is not macroscopic! I was able to detect it only because I'm a professional."

"Well, now. We have a problem."

She exhaled in exasperation. "It's imperative that you believe me and follow my advice!"

I crossed my arms, leaned against the opposite wall, and said nothing. She saw my resolve, and searched the inside of her skull for a way.

"Fine!" she fumed, "I will try to recalibrate one of my tools to your brain." Three spheres appeared around me on the bed, each about the size and color of a tennis ball. I jumped a bit at their sudden appearance. She took each one in turn and held it silently in her hands for a few moments, the replaced them around me in a perfect triangle. I noted these were placed out away from me about as far as to lay at the edge of my aura – were it to be visible. She must have switched this set-up on at one point, because I felt the oddest sensation. I felt like there were... three of me sitting there; just off by less than a fraction of an inch, but in three places at once, and sort of vibrating between the positions. Deep strangeness. Not the Ether, I noted thankfully (since that's hard to take), but _weird_.

Finally she said, "Close your eyes." I complied. "Clear your mind." Fat chance. "Concentrate on the... aura represented around you. Tell me what you sense."

Always the sceptic, I answered, "Sorry, Doc. The other way around; _You_ tell _me_ what being infected with this thing should look like. I'll be the judge."

She exhaled loudly. "Are you always this difficult?" I didn't answer. I was 'watching' quite a light show – considering my eyes were closed.

"Notice the power lanes around you. Colony will influence the color of the lanes. A subject infected with Colony will see the energy lines with a turquoise haze in the edges of the area viewed."

My breath caught and my stomach lurched. "Turquoise?" I asked weakly.

"With grainy points of _orange_. Do you see this?"

My cocky attitude dissolved in a surge of dread. "Yeah... yeah, I do." I whispered.

"_Latent phase_." Her voice was strained with controlled emotion. She immediately backed off from the bed. "Take only the most essential things with you. Time is of the essence, before they bloom. Get _far away_ from other humans. _Start_ _now_."

When I re-opened my eyes, she was already gone.


End file.
